FINAL
COMMENTS

Far
away from Long's Louisiana and the New Dealers in Washington, Upton
Sinclair raised his voice with his mighty pen throughout most of his
life, and while his Socialist views were largely known to his reading
audience, when he announced that if elected Governor of California he
would "End Poverty in California," he caught the attention of more than
just his usual literary crowd. Not branding it Socialism, but rather a
Democratic Party platform, Sinclair wanted to lead his sheep to greener
pastures. He proposed an end to joblessness, homelessness, and poverty
through a return to agrarianism combined with cooperative farming where
production would be for use, not for profit.

Sinclair lost the election, but one can speculate on him enacting his
EPIC plan and returning California to agrarian days of yore. An
agrarian revolution where Socialist principles prevail over the evil
oppression of capitalism. And, where an economy of production-for-use
and California government-made scrip keeps everyone housed and fed. If
it seems too utopian to think of it now, it seemed that way then, too,
especially to wealthy capitalists such as Mayer and Hearst. They
quickly put an end to Sinclair's utopian plan with a smear campaign
that in the end squelched not only Sinclair, but the disaffected
revolutionaries following Sinclair's EPIC plan. However, and more to
the point, the utopia Sinclair was advocating was nothing short of
Socialism and his platform, along with his followers, would have
brought an economic and social revolution to California.

The 1930s was a great awakening for Americans. The economic and social
challenges brought on by the Great Depression challenged not only what
it meant to be an American, but the political and economic direction of
the nation. Armed with a history of rebelliousness, revolution, and
social dissent, Americans were naturally critical of the failure of
capitalism and the government's lack of immediate economic relief.
Voices like that of Father Coughlin, Huey Long, and Upton Sinclair,
gave many Americans an alternative to the current New Deal thought and
action on relief. These three men were voices for the disaffected, and
had their platforms of redistribution of wealth been enacted, America
may have seen quite possibly the greatest revolution since our
departure from England in 1776. And, these revolutionary words from the
Declaration of Independence, quoted yet again and cannot be repeated enough, are as one with the with the voices of
Coughlin, Long, and Sinclair as they were in 1776:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely
to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The Great Depression ended with America manufacturing and selling
munitions to the war effort against fascism in Europe. A few New
Deal remnants remain today such as, Social Security, TVA, and Rural
Electrification, but most relief efforts were mute as America entered
the war indirectly through munitions sales, then directly after Pearl
Harbor in 1941. In 2005, 75 years later, America is still a capitalist
democracy where the inequitable distribution of wealth goes unnoticed
by most, but is rather a smoldering ember waiting to for the right time
to burn brightly. There are surely Father Coughlin's, Huey Long's, and
Upton Sinclair's among us who are ready to receive the flame, and ready
to be a voice for the disaffected.